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College offers four-year free ride for the best tweet

With its new contest, the University of Iowa is taking electronic communication to a new level.

“The university is asking prospective students to submit a 140-character tweet in place of a second essay,” reports USA Today. “The University of Iowa is joining several others in its attempt to make students get to the point quickly and to improve their social media skills—two qualities that today's Twitter-savvy marketplace demands.”

The winner will grab a $37,000 scholarship to the university’s business school. The deadline is July 28.

"We want [applicants] to show us more about themselves," Jodi Schafer, the Tippie School of Management's director of recruiting and admissions told the Iowa Press-Citizen. "This would give us a lot more depth and show us more about a candidate than an essay would show."

Is this a good idea? Critics say the school shouldn’t focus on “a fad.”